Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say Rejoice!
“VICAR GOES BANANAS”
A clipping from a newspaper.
“Pious
parishioners’ were put out when their vicar threw ripe bananas at them from the pulpit. The Rev. Ingemar Thorin explained
later that his fruity message was aimed at getting his flock to have fun in church. “The problem is that traditional
Christians take their religion and themselves far too seriously” he said. “I’m for having a bit of a laugh
and a joke with my friends in Christ.”
“A
few of the worshippers walked out as the bananas began to fly during the vicar’s sermon at the parish church of Uirsberg in Malmo,
Sweden.
A choir lady said resignedly, “I don’t really know why he did it. Our vicar does some strange things sometimes.”
______________________________________________
‘Strange’
is a word that people associate with churches more often than ‘fun’. People don’t usually think ‘Laughter’
and then think “religion.” Jokes are heard from comedians, not from pulpits.
Yet I remember going to
Sunday School and singing “If you’re happy and you know it… Clap your hands”. Just this summer at
camp, there I was jumping up and down shouting “I’ve got that joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart (Where?) down
in my heart!”
Are joy and happiness
supposed to fade when we reach a certain age? Is laughter only for children? Is there any fun in the Bible? Has God designed
us with a funny bone only for the irony of the fact that when we smash it against something it isn’t funny? Or are humor
and laughter and joy meant to be a natural part of the human condition to be embraced and celebrated?
Humor has been around
for a long, long time. The oldest known joke in the world has one man saying to another, “Who was that lady I saw you
with last night?” The man replies “That was no lady… that was my wife!” That joke was discovered inscribed
on a tablet by an archeologist in the city of Ur and dated to around 2150 BC. 4000
years old and it’s still raising a smile!
Humor doesn’t always
travel well from culture to culture and generation to generation. You may be surprised to know that there is a lot of humor
in the Bible that just goes over our heads. It is neither Western nor modern and so we miss it.
One thing that tickled
the ancient Hebrews and which appears throughout the Old Testament is ‘puns’ or plays on words. Probably the best known is the ‘Tower of Babel’.
Those bad boasting Babylonians build a big Babel tower only to have God reduce them to a scattered bunch of babbonish bemused
babblers. Babel to babble…get it… hey… it’s in the Bible!
Puns can be subtle and
dark. In the story of Joseph interpreting the dreams of the butler and baker as they are held captive in Pharaoh’s dungeons,
he says to them:-‘Butler, in 3 days the King will raise up your head out of this prison and
you can serve him again.” But to the other man, “Baker, in 3 days the King will raise up your head, right
off your neck and hang it on a tree!” As I say puns can be subtle and dark and what is amusing in one culture may not
translate well to another.
When you come to the New
Testament, Jesus was a master of painting absurd word pictures when he wanted to say really important things. Camels through
the eyes of needles. Mustard Seed faith that could facilitate mountain removal. He made heroes of folks like shepherds and
Samaritans and in the process demolished prejudices and overturned religious sensibilities.
He sometimes stated the
obvious and made it spiritual. ‘If you have ears to hear then hear.” I mean what else are we supposed to do with
these things on the side of our heads if it isn’t to listen? “If you have eyes then see!” Of course I’ve
got eyes to see with. I don’t see what you’re getting at? Oh... or maybe I do… I think I just got it!”
It is taken for granted
by the gospel authors that joy radiated from the person of Jesus. Children ran to him. Earthy people like tax collectors and
sinners enjoyed His company. When Jesus wept, the Biblical writers found it such an exceptional thing that they felt they
needed to write it down as an extraordinary occurrence. The first miracle in John’s Gospel had Jesus turning water into
wine at a wedding celebration. Joy and laughter seemed to follow Him around.
The New Testament letters
contain much that should raise a smile. When Paul does his great picture of the Church as a body (in 1 Corinthians) he has
hands arguing with feet and eyes that make selfish protests that they need their independence from the rest of the organs.
It is the stuff of a cartoonist’s dream!
He speaks of praying with
joy, of overflowing with joy, of joy as a spiritual gift up there with peace and love and truth, of the Christian’s
inheritance in Christ as being one of joy, joy laid up in heaven such as this world cannot fully comprehend a kind of joy
that transforms even our most miserable moments on earth.
My experience of our awesome
God is that God has a sense of humor that is out of this world. And it’s often revealed in answers to prayer that make
us laugh at ourselves.
I remember a time when
I’d only been a Christian believer for a couple of years and I was walking down a road in the part of suburban England that I was living in. I was having a good old moan at God. I’d
started attending this little church and had been given the responsibility of developing the youth programs. And… friends,
I was not doing a good job. In fact attendance at the church, not just the youth, but of all ages was going down, down, down.
Of course none of this
was my fault. It was obviously due to God’s inability and inactivity in that particular suburban area. And I was ready
to take things into my own hands. “O.K. God” I prayed, “This is it. The very next person who comes along
this road I am going to stop, and I’m going to give it to them straight, that they need to listen to the gospel and
get their butt in church. It’s obvious, God, that this is not something You are doing around here, so I’m just
going to swallow my Presbyterian pride and do some ‘in your face’ talking about Jesus evangelism.”
A man came around the
corner, his head down, coat buttoned up tight. I gritted my teeth as I mentally prepared to break his will with my urgent
presentation of the necessity of coming to terms with his eternal destiny.
I was just about to accost
him when as he drew near. He unbuttoned his coat and looked at me and smiled. I couldn’t believe it as I saw glinting
in the sunlight the clerical collar of Rev. Hammond Jones, the priest who ministered so faithfully for years at the local
Episcopalian church.
As I ran past him, red
as a beet root, he must have thought I’d gone out of my mind. And inside the voice of God’s Spirit seemed to be
chuckling at my expense and whispering; “Now what was that you were saying about God’s inability to get anyone
to church around here!”
God always seems to have
the last laugh. And there’s nothing wrong with laughter. It is wonderful medicine, maybe the best. As your doctor can
tell you it takes a lot of muscles to make a frown but relatively few to create a smile.
That is not to say there
are wrong types of humor and indeed scripture seems to give us some pointers.
1)
Jesus never seemed to take joy at another person’s
misfortune. On the contrary His acts were ones of healing and deliverance. The best humor is that which makes us laugh at
ourselves. Bad humor takes prejudices and inflames them. Maybe that’s a good way to evaluate our laughter. Am I laughing
with this person or laughing at them
because of my own insecurities or fears? The first heals, the second hurts.
2)
Scripture is against the laughter of flippancy.
There are people who never take anything seriously, not even the claims that God makes upon their lives. Scripture has a word
for them. “Fools’. ‘The Fool says in his heart there is no God.’ What goes around comes around. If
you invest your life in unbelief it will reap a harsh reward.
3)
Scripture also seems to speak against the laughter
of disbelief. Abraham’s wife Sarah is rebuked for laughing when God tells her she will bear a child. Sometimes when
I’m up here in the pulpit I’ll tell you things like God really wanting to make something of your life… of
how God can take what you have ruined and still make something beautiful out of it…or about God’s ability to turn
crosses of pain into resurrections; and on occasions people laugh inwardly in disbelief. I believe the Holy Spirit is grieved
by such empty and hollow laughter.
It’s Thanksgiving
time right now. Thanksgiving does carry with it an attitude of joy and well-being and laughter. Central to the life of every
Christian believer should be a sense of thanksgiving and joy.
Galatians 5:22 “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy and peace.”
What a beautiful verse, because right at the center is joy… flowing out from the love of God and into the peace of God.
Spiritual joy can be a center for our lives.
And our source
of joy should be Jesus Christ… not the Comedy Channel or the next funniest video on You Tube, not joy that comes from
a wine bottle or that has a price tag attached…
I’m talking
of the kind if joy that leads us to wholeness and delight filled praise of God… something deeper than laughter, something
that may come with tears…
Church should be
a celebration. I don’t need a box of bananas to throw at you to remind you of that! As we are in this season of Thanksgiving
I encourage us to be truly thankful to God for every blessing so freely given. And I’m sure that as we count our blessings
we will find a bit of Holy Spiritual joy bubbling up in our hearts.
God really is good all the time!
And to God’s name be glory.
Amen.
